Monday, October 10, 2016

Book Review: 101 Horror Movies/101 Sci-Fi Movies You Must See Before You Die

Because life can often be as serendipitous as the movies,
the news that two books edited by film critic-scholar Steven Jay Schneider—101 Horror Movies You Must See Before You
Die and 101 Sci-Fi MoviesYou Must See Before You Die—have been
re-released this October after languishing in publishing limbo for the past
seven years seems like an incredible coinky-dink.I’m sure it isn’t, of course, but
nevertheless this is fantastic news for those of you who have been searching
high and low for the perfect gift for that special someone this Halloween.(Hey…I’m sure there are folks out there who
exchange Halloween gifts.Stop looking
me like I’m crazy.Well, more than you
usually do, at any rate.)

The name “Steven Jay Schneider” may be familiar to many of
you movie mavens out there: he’s the general editor of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die—a hefty reference tome that
has influenced a good many movie
websites and blogs out
there in NetLand, to be sure.Schneider
has since turned to movie producing (he produced the latest Blair Witch reboot, among many films),
but maintains an affection for horror movies; his previous books include Horror Film and Psychoanalysis: Freud's
Worst Nightmares and Fear Without
Frontiers: Horror Cinema Across the Globe.Publicity material for 101 Horror/101
Sci-Fi states that S.J.’s three favorite horror movies are The Haunting (the 1963 version), Rosemary’s Baby, and The
Shining.(Well…two out of three
ain’t bad, I suppose.)

As someone who unabashedly prefers older movies, 101 Horror Movies features essays on
many Thrilling Days of Yesteryear
favorites—ranging from silent cinema (The
Golem, Nosferatu) to the
Universal classics (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man) to cult essentials (The Masque of the Red Death, The
Devil Rides Out).I was particularly
impressed with how the book approaches cinema horror from a wider standpoint
than just American movies; you’ll find a lot of entries like Ringu, The Devil’sBackbone,
and Onibaba (this will make the
rounds on The Greatest Cable Channel Known to Mankind™ in December) …as well as
foreign classics like Eyes Without a
Face, Black Sunday, and Viy.

Of course, the handicap with these kinds of books is that
they encourage folks (let’s use me as an example) to invariably ask “But what
about…?”You won’t find The Mummy (the 1932 Karloff version) in
this book, nor Son of Frankenstein (if
you include the first two, why not the third?).Night of the Demon is glaringly
absent, and I’m puzzled by the inclusion of entries like M and Diabolique—while suspenseful,
I don’t think I would classify them as horror movies.And at the risk of having to fight off
everyone in the comments section, I’m still bewildered by the popularity of The Shining, one of the most
critically-overrated films in the history of cinema.(Do what damage you must; I only ask that you
refrain from insinuating my parents aren’t married.)

Here’s the explanation why owning both books are essential: 101 Sci-Fi Movies lists movies that
could be considered horror, but were probably placed in this volume because of
their emphasis on science.(Science!)Movies like Them! and Invasion of the Body Snatchers are horror movies to me, though I
should stress it’s always troubling to try and box in a movie to just one
category.Just as with 101 HorrorMovies, Sci-Fi features
silent movie entries (A Trip to the Moon,
Metropolis) and some vintage
classics like The Invisible Man (the
1933 version) and Things to Come.(There’s a fifteen-year gap between Things and The Thing from Another World, suggesting that there was a dry spell
when it came to science-fiction on the silver screen.)101
Sci-Fi makes room for some of my genuine favorites: Seconds, Quatermass and the
Pit, and Sleeper (it’s in there,
honest to my grandma!).

Both 101 Horror
and 101 Sci-Fi are larded with rich
illustrations, and the essays themselves in both books are clear and
concise.Unfortunately, these entries
are not immune from the occasional error; my favorite is this one from Dracula: “Tod Browning made a series of
psychologically twisted, cult-like films with Lon Chaney (the actor originally
cast as Dracula).Chaney played a “disturbed”
corner of a little love triangle—he was a horribly deformed suitor in Browning’s
1932 Freaks.”Considering Lon died in 1930 and Freaks came
out in 1932…that is quite a feat.Here’s
the thing: Freaks is listed as one
of the 101Horror Movies, and a glance at the cast list reveals no mention of
The Man of a Thousand Faces.(You’d
think Schneider would have caught this…maybe he was distracted by being called to the set.)

So here’s the $64 question: are the 101 films in both the Horror and Sci-Fi book releases really movies you must see before departing
to that Great Multiplex in the Sky?Yes.Yes, they are.(I’ll be around to check on your progress in
about another hour.)Okay, I’m just
being a little facetious; these books should be accepted solely as a guideline
for recommendations in case you’re presented with the ultimate movie-watching
dilemma: “What haven’t I seen
already?”(Since I was able to check off
most of the older movies, I should really seek out more recent titles as The Descent, Let the Right One In, and It
Follows.)I enjoyed poring through
both of these books; the only Steven Jay Schneider publication with which I
had a previous passing familiarity was 101 Cult
Movies You Must See Before You Die (I picked this one up for change at
Hamilton Books), and while it was a breezy read it can’t hold a candle to the
Danny Peary trilogy (Cult Movies, Cult Movies 2, Cult Movies 3).I’d highly
recommend a purchase of 101 Horror Movies
YouMust See Before You Die and
101 Sci-Fi Movies You Must See Before
You Die; they’re digest-sized, and would fit snugly in that significant
other’s Halloween stocking or Trick-or-Treat bag.Many thanks to Steve Roth at Quatro
Publishing for providing TDOY with
review copies.

4 comments:

I enjoy books like these, but I rate them on how many of MY favorites are included. (Modest though I be, I am my favorite film critic because I like all the movies I recommend.) NIGHT OF THE DEMON is a horrible omission! (On the other hand, I applaud leaving out THE MUMMY...which is historically important but a dull affair.) Thanks for the recommendations, Ivan.